Prosecutors: Sergeant aware of Afghanistan attack

Tuesday

Nov 6, 2012 at 12:01 AMNov 6, 2012 at 7:07 AM

Staff Sgt. Robert Bales spent the evening on his remote outpost in southern Afghanistan with fellow soldiers, watching a movie about revenge killings, sharing whiskey from a plastic bottle and discussing an attack that cost one of their friends his leg.

GENE JOHNSON - Associated Press

Updated at 6:10 p.m.

JOINT BASE LEWIS-McCHORD, Wash. (AP) — The medic saw Staff Sgt. Robert Bales covered in blood and knew from the pattern of the staining it wasn't his own. He asked where it came from and where he'd been.

“If I tell you, you guys will have to testify against me,” Stillwell quoted him as saying.

The statement was one of many attributed to Bales that suggest he knew what he was doing the night he surrendered after a two-village killing spree in southern Afghanistan, prosecutors say.

The remarks, offered by fellow soldiers testifying for the government Monday and Tuesday, could pose a high hurdle for defense lawyers who have indicated that Bales’ mental health will be a big part of their case. The testimony is part of a preliminary hearing being held to help determine whether the case goes to a court martial.

Defense lawyers have noted that Bales was serving his fourth deployment, and had suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder as well as a concussive head injury in Iraq. One witness testified Tuesday that he was quick to anger.

The 39-year-old father of two from Lake Tapps, Wash., faces 16 counts of premeditated murder and six counts of attempted murder in the March 11 attack on the villages of Balandi and Alkozai, which counted nine children among its victims.

One of the worst atrocities of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, the attack prompted the U.S. to halt combat operations for days in the face of protests, and military investigators couldn't reach the crime scenes for a month.

A prosecutor's opening statement and witness testimony Monday suggested Bales spent the evening before the massacre at his remote outpost of Camp Belambay with two other soldiers, watching a movie about revenge killings, sharing contraband whiskey from a plastic bottle and discussing an attack that cost one of their comrades his leg.

Within hours, a cape-wearing Bales slipped away from the post and embarked on a killing spree of his own, said the prosecutor, Lt. Col. Jay Morse. He attacked one village then returned to Belambay, where he woke up a colleague and reported what he'd done, Morse said. The colleague testified that he didn't believe Bales and went back to sleep.

Bales headed out again, Morse said, and attacked the second village, bringing his death toll to 16 before returning once again in the predawn darkness, bloody and incredulous that his comrades ordered him to surrender his weapons.

His return to the base was captured on surveillance video, Morse said.

Soldiers testified that after being taken into custody, Bales told them, “I thought I was doing the right thing.”

“It's bad, it's really bad,” he reportedly added.

And Stillwell, the medic, said Bales told him that the soldiers at Camp Belambay would appreciate his actions once the fighting season ramped up: “You guys are going to thank me come June.”

At another point, Bales remarked, “I guess four was too many” — an apparent reference to the number of family compounds in the attacked villages, Morse said Monday.

Bales was largely calm and compliant when he turned himself in following the massacre, several soldiers testified Tuesday. He followed orders and sometimes sat with his head in his hands, as though the magnitude of what he had done was sinking in, one said.

At one point, Bales made a joke — pointing his finger, in the shape of a gun, at two soldiers guarding him — in what they took as a failed effort to ease the tension.

But Bales also deliberately mangled his laptop, said two soldiers assigned to guard him as he gathered his things.

One of them, Sgt. Ross O'Rourke, testified that he removed the laptop from Bales’ rucksack after the defendant told him he didn't want to take it with him. O'Rourke said Bales then grabbed the computer and folded the screen back, breaking it.

That didn't damage the hard drive, O'Rourke said, and investigators still could have retrieved information from the computer. O'Rourke didn't testify about what information might have been uncovered.

On Monday, Cpl. David Godwin testified that Bales asked him to bleach his blood-soaked clothes.

Two other soldiers, Pfcs. Derek Guinn and Damian Blodgett, testified Tuesday that they were on a guard shift early March 11 when they heard scattered gunfire coming from Alkozai, the first village attacked. They used thermal imaging and then shot up flares to illuminate the area, but couldn't make out what was going on.

Blodgett said he reported it to the operations center on base, and a specialist told them to monitor it and let him know if it came toward them.

The shooting lasted for 30 to 40 minutes, Blodgett said.

Guinn said he considered Bales to be bipolar: “Sometimes he was in a really good mood, and he seemed really angry sometimes, or easily annoyed.”

Two other witnesses said that later, an interpreter arrived with two Afghan National Army soldiers who reported that they had seen an American come and go from the base. Guinn gave a slightly different account when he recalled that the interpreter said the soldiers had seen two Americans arrive on base, and one head back out.

After the shootings, some Afghan villagers questioned whether they could have been carried out by one soldier.

Bales has not entered a plea, and is not expected to testify. His attorneys, who did not give an opening statement, have not discussed the evidence, but say Bales has post-traumatic stress disorder and suffered a concussive head injury during a prior deployment to Iraq.

Bales has not participated in a medical evaluation known as a “sanity board,” because his lawyers have objected to having him meet with Army doctors outside their presence.

Bales’ lawyers called their first witness Tuesday, a soldier who bagged the blood-soaked clothes Bales had been wearing as evidence. The testimony focused primarily on how the evidence was handled.

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Updated at 3:10 p.m.

JOINT BASE LEWIS-McCHORD, Wash. — Staff Sgt. Robert Bales was largely calm and compliant when he turned himself in following a predawn massacre at two Afghan villages in March, witnesses testified Tuesday. He followed orders, sometimes sat with his head in his hands, and at one point cracked a joke in a failed effort to ease tension.

But he also deliberately mangled his laptop, said two soldiers assigned to accompany him while he gathered his things.

One of them, Sgt. Ross O'Rourke, testified that he removed the laptop from Bales’ rucksack after the defendant told him he didn't want to take it with him. O'Rourke said Bales then grabbed the computer and folded the screen back, breaking it.

That didn't prevent investigators from retrieving information from the computer, O'Rourke said. He didn't say, however, what information was collected.

O'Rourke's testimony came on the second day of a preliminary hearing for Bales, 39, a veteran of four combat tours who faces 16 counts of premeditated murder and six counts of attempted murder. The hearing will help determine whether the case goes to a court martial.

On Monday, Cpl. David Godwin testified that Bales asked him to bleach his blood-soaked clothes.

The March 11 attack on the villages of Balandi and Alkozai prompted the U.S. to halt combat operations for days in the face of protests. It was a month before military investigators could reach the crime scenes.

A prosecutor's opening statement and other witness testimony Monday suggested Bales spent the evening before the massacre at his remote outpost of Camp Belambay with fellow soldiers, watching a movie about revenge killings, sharing contraband whiskey from a plastic bottle and discussing an attack that cost one of their friends his leg.

Within hours, a cape-wearing Bales embarked on a killing spree of his own, slaughtering 16 Afghan civilians before returning to the base in predawn darkness, bloody and incredulous that his comrades ordered him to surrender his weapons, said prosecutor Lt. Col. Jay Morse.

“I thought I was doing the right thing,” a fellow soldier recalled him saying.

Morse said that after Bales attacked one village he returned to his post, woke a colleague to report what he had done, and said that he was headed out to attack another village. The colleague took it as a bad joke.

“I never got out of bed, sir,” the colleague, Sgt. Jason McLaughlin, testified. “I thought it was ridiculously out of the realm of normal possibility, sir.”

Bales has not entered a plea. His attorneys have not discussed the evidence, but say Bales has post-traumatic stress disorder and suffered a concussive head injury during a prior deployment to Iraq.

The defense did not give an opening statement. Bales was not expected to testify.

A surveillance blimp captured video of a caped man — identified as Bales — returning to the base. He was greeted by McLaughlin and other soldiers with “weapons at the ready,” said Morse.

McLaughlin testified that he then turned to McLaughlin and asked: “Mac, did you rat me out?” McLaughlin replied, “No.”

The night before the raids, Bales and two other soldiers watched “Man On Fire,” a fictional 2004 Denzel Washington movie about a former CIA operative on a revenge spree, the prosecutor said.

Godwin testified that Bales seemed normal as they shared whiskey, discussed Bales’ anxiety over whether he'd get a promotion and talked about another soldier who lost his leg a week in an attack a week earlier.

Shortly before leaving the base, Bales told a Special Forces soldier, Sgt. 1st Class Clayton Blackshear, that he was unhappy with his family life and that the troops should have been quicker to retaliate for the March 5 bomb attack, Morse said.

“At all times, he had a clear understanding of what he was doing and what he had done,” said Morse, who described Bales as lucid and responsive.

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JOINT BASE LEWIS-McCHORD, Wash. — Staff Sgt. Robert Bales spent the evening on his remote outpost in southern Afghanistan with fellow soldiers, watching a movie about revenge killings, sharing whiskey from a plastic bottle and discussing an attack that cost one of their friends his leg.

Within hours, a prosecutor said Monday, a cape-wearing Bales embarked on a killing spree of his own, slaughtering 16 Afghan civilians before returning to the base in predawn darkness, bloody and incredulous that his comrades ordered him to surrender his weapons.

"I thought I was doing the right thing," a fellow soldier recalled him saying.

The details emerged at the opening of a preliminary hearing in Bales' case at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, offering the clearest picture yet of one of the worst atrocities of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

The prosecutor, Lt. Col. Jay Morse, said that after Bales attacked one village near his post at Camp Belambay, he returned, woke a colleague to report what he had done, and said that he was headed out to attack another village.

"I never got out of bed, sir," the colleague, Sgt. Jason McLaughlin, testified. "I thought it was ridiculously out of the realm of normal possibility, sir."

The March 11 attack on the villages of Balandi and Alkozai prompted the U.S. to halt combat operations for days in the face of protests. It was a month before military investigators could reach the crime scenes.

Bales, 39, faces 16 counts of premeditated murder and six counts of attempted murder. The hearing could last up to two weeks and will help determine whether the case goes to a court-martial.

Bales has not entered a plea. His attorneys have not discussed the evidence, but say Bales has post-traumatic stress disorder and suffered a concussive head injury during a prior deployment to Iraq.

The father of two from Lake Tapps, Wash., wore green fatigues and sat beside one of his civilian lawyers as an investigating officer read the charges against him and informed him of his rights.

When asked if he understood them, Bales said, "Sir, yes, sir."

The defense did not give an opening statement. Bales was not expected to testify.

McLaughlin recalled that before Bales left his room, he said, "Take care of my kids."

McLaughlin's response: "No, Bob. Take care of your own kids."

McLaughlin said he went back to sleep until his 3 a.m. guard shift, and forgot about the conversation until two Afghan soldiers approached him to say shots had been fired.

"It felt like a thousand pounds of bricks hit me in the chest," he said. "I ran to see if Sgt. Bales was in his room."

He wasn't, McLaughlin said.

A surveillance blimp captured video of a caped man — identified as Bales — returning to the base. He was greeted by McLaughlin and other soldiers with "weapons at the ready," said Morse.

McLaughlin testified that he then turned to McLaughlin and asked: "Mac, did you rat me out?" McLaughlin replied, "No."

The night before the raids, Bales and two other soldiers watched "Man On Fire," a fictional 2004 Denzel Washington movie about a former CIA operative on a revenge spree, the prosecutor said.

Cpl. David Godwin testified that Bales seemed normal as they shared whiskey, discussed Bales' anxiety over whether he'd get a promotion and talked about another soldier who lost his leg a week in an attack a week earlier.

Shortly before leaving the base, Bales told a Special Forces soldier, Sgt. 1st Class Clayton Blackshear, that he was unhappy with his family life and that the troops should have been quicker to retaliate for the March 5 bomb attack, Morse said.

"At all times, he had a clear understanding of what he was doing and what he had done," said Morse, who described Bales as lucid and responsive.

Prosecutors played for the first time the video captured by the surveillance blimp that showed the caped figure running toward the base, then stopping and dropping his weapons as he was confronted. There was no audio.

It wasn't immediately clear from where Bales got the cape.

Part of the hearing will be held overnight to allow video testimony from witnesses in Afghanistan.

Bales' attorney, John Henry Browne, said the hearing will give the defense a chance to see what the military can prove. He said they are expecting a court-martial.

Bales' wife, Karilyn, told a Seattle TV station that she hoped for a fair proceeding if her husband goes to trial.

"It all seems incomprehensible to me," she told KING-TV. "This is not something he would do, not the Bob I know."

Bales, an Ohio native, joined the Army in 2001 after the 9/11 attacks as his career as a stockbroker imploded, including an arbitrator's $1.5 million fraud judgment against him and his former company.

Bales was serving his fourth combat tour after three stints in Iraq. His arrest prompted a national discussion about the stresses that soldiers face from multiple deployments.

His lawyers have said Bales remembers little or nothing from around the time of the attacks.